Non-profit hospitals' staffing woes ease
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Despite the "tripledemic" and continued high employee turnover, non-profit hospitals' staffing crunch is showing signs of lifting, Fitch Ratings concludes.
Why it matters: A shortage of health care workers could temporarily increase the need for contract labor and eat into cost improvements that health systems have made over the past few months, analysts say.
What they found: Fitch cites Bureau of Labor Statistics data showing hospital and ambulatory health services payrolls increased by 11,000 and 23,300, respectively, from October to November while job openings for the health and social assistance sector declined in October.
Yes, but: Facilities are still seeing plenty of staffers leave.
- "The high quits rate indicates that health care and social assistance workers have a high willingness and ability to leave their current jobs and highlights the pressure on health systems to provide increased wages and improved working conditions to employees," said Richard Park, director at Fitch Ratings.
The big picture: The lingering effects of the pandemic combined with inflation have played havoc with the health care workforce, at times threatening patient care.
- To stabilize staffing, health systems have boosted wages, and hospital employees' average hourly earnings have risen 17% from February 2020 to October 2022, per Healthcare Dive.
What we're watching: Whether Congress will heed hospitals' calls for more federal relief before year's end.
